Netflix Offers 3 Percent Credit for Streaming Outage

Netflix is offering a 3 percent credit to those affected by Sunday night's streaming outage.

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It was really hot two nights ago, and all I wanted to do was finish watching Broken Flowers. Much to my dismay, however, Netflix's Instant Streaming service sank.

Without provocation, the audio cut out and the movie stopped being a movie. An unfriendly loading bar took over the screen and obscured my view of Bill Murray en route to Penny's house.

It appears I wasn't the only one. Netflix sent out an email last night apologizing for the brief outage and offering up a 3 percent credit for the inconvenience. "We're sorry you had trouble watching instantly," the email said.

That 3 percent, which will be applied to the next billing cycle, does not exactly translate into a major payday. I have the $7.99 monthly streaming-only plan, so a 3 percent credit will knock a mind-blowing 25 cents off of my bill. This reparation comes with a provision, though. I must decide in seven days if I want to redeem this credit.

If the Twitter-verse is to be understood correctly, many users got the conciliatory email. User reaction was varied. "I am fine with price changes... but 'our service was down, here's a quarter,' is pretty insulting. #netflix," @mightymur tweeted. Another user was pleased: "@netflix wow...I didn't even complain about your service being down and you emailed me and said sorry and gave me a credit. A++.," @AmyEngland1 tweeted.

This most recent outage, meanwhile, came on the heels of Netflix's recently announced price changes. There will be standalone plans for streaming and DVD by mail. A streaming plan will be $7.99 per month, as will a 1 DVD-at-a-time plan, or $15.98 for both rather than $9.99 per month.

In the wake of that announcement, PCMag conducted a poll and found that 55 percent of respondents said that they would drop Netflix over these new plans. What will you do? Let us know in the comments.

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